Pop Culture Maniacs
Steppenwolf
"Is there any need for good? It's unnecessary."
Pop Culture Maniacs
Pop Culture Maniacs
Final Destination Bloodlines
As a staple of the aughts, it’s fitting that the last entry in the Final Destination horror franchise came fourteen years ago. It’s a series of mid-budget horror films with almost no recurring characters spawned from a rejected spec script for The X Files, squarely situating it in
Pop Culture Maniacs
Rosario
The decline of the movie star has been well-documented. For the uninitiated, the idea is that audiences historically showed up to a movie on the strength of its lead actors, but that’s not generally true anymore. Currently, the ones who can draw a crowd are mostly over forty, indicating
Pop Culture Maniacs
The Shrouds
"How dark are you willing to go?"
Pop Culture Maniacs
The Amateur
"Overestimate your chances to build confidence."
Pop Culture Maniacs
Hell of a Summer
At first, the offer of Hell of a Summer is very recognizable. An unknown and unseen killer slowly picks off a bunch of kids at a summer camp while their friends obliviously go about activities nearby. There are campfires, tall tales, tiny cabins, lame ice breakers, and awkward hook-ups. There&
Pop Culture Maniacs
Ash
There's a certain type of low-budget sci-fi I will always show up for. They lack the money to pull off a grand epic. They feature limited action, although a clever director can disguise that with filmmaking tricks and careful planning. They never feature current stars, although rising actors
Pop Culture Maniacs
The Rule of Jenny Pen
My whole life I've been bored. I look back and see an empty bin.
Pop Culture Maniacs
Cleaner
Cleaner feels like a relic from a bygone era. The many comparisons it's received to Die Hard are debatable, although the marketing is certainly inviting them. To be fair, their cores are the same: an action-thriller in the style of an airport novel about an unassuming person thrust
Pop Culture Maniacs
Armand
A new Renate Reinsve movie is always a reason to celebrate, especially one like this which lets her fully utilize her wonderful range.
Pop Culture Maniacs
Bring Them Down
"Y'know what they say. Where there's livestock, there's dead stock."
Pop Culture Maniacs
Love Me
The core theme of Love Me destined it to be labeled a pandemic-era movie. While Americans had already been experiencing epidemic levels of loneliness in the late 2010s, the outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequent lockdowns highlighted what was already there while deepening that isolation. We were drowning in a preponderance